1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to nanotechnology, and in particular, to carbon nanotube electronics, actuators, and sensors.
2. Background of the Invention
For decades the civilization-changing electronics industry implemented first germanium (Group IV-A metal element), then silicon (Group IV-A non-metal element), and to some extent Group III-A/Group V-A combinations (such as gallium-arsenide and indium-phosphide). One application of such materials is to move large quantities of electrons within semiconducting junctions and lattices as signifiers of signals and quantities subject to transport, storage, and transformative operations. Nature has worked at a much grander scale with far more selfsustainable results using chemical reaction and electrical properties of carbon (Group IV-A nonmetal element). Since Sumio Iijima's discovery of (multi-wall) carbon nanotubes in 1991, which is based on the Buckminsterfullerene (C60) by Richard Smalley and team, the subsequent 1993 discoveries of single-wall carbon nanotubes by a number of separate research groups, and the first studies of the electrical properties of these, carbon lattices have rapidly risen to a position to form a new platform for electronics in a manner that gracefully inherits the accumulated quantum theory and design conceptualizations of the now well-entrenched semiconductor dogmas and methodologies. Although other types of molecular electronic materials, substrates, and methods await study and development, carbon nanotube electronics has captured considerable funding support and scientific research attention. Additionally, being carbon-based, there is the potential for future leverage of carbon-based electronics in deep and profound ways with carbon-based organic and bioorganic chemical processes.